


bruised dreams

by aphelion (astroblemish)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dragon Age Fusion, Happy Ending, High Fantasy, M/M, Magic, Non-Linear Narrative
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-09-02 03:51:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20269555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astroblemish/pseuds/aphelion
Summary: All heroes have a legendary story; this is how Baekhyun's ends.





	bruised dreams

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cosmicmilktea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicmilktea/gifts).

> thank you for such a fun prompt for a game series i love (and also simultaneously hate). though i havent touched the series since inquisition came out it was still a lot of fun to revisit and twist to fit my own artistic liberties. thank you also to cat for holding my hand and assuring me that at least one person cares about this mess hiujnkf
> 
> for anyone who hasnt played the game this should still be comprehensive --there's just a few easter eggs you'll miss :p

* * *

xiv.

Everyone talks of how a great legend begins, but no one ever talks about how they end.

It would be nice to say that Baekhyun’s ending comes now, in the form of a clawed hand in his chest and lyrium running through his veins. The truth is, Baekhyun knows his story ended long ago --this is just another chapter in a book that will never exist.

In Thedas, his eyes flicker open. _ Shit, Baekhyun, hurry up, _ Chanyeol curses, holding Lust off.

_Something's_ _wrong, _Sehun shouts back. You can't die in the Fade, not really --after all, it's just a dream, a metaphysical projection-- but Baekhyun's dying in the real world too.

"Baekhyun!" Now it's Jongdae shouting, but all Baekhyun can do is look down at the claw in his stomach, the blood that's started to trickle out because that's what his subconscious expects. There's no pain in the Fade, but through the Veil separating this realm and the next Baekhyun feels his physical body scream. Lust smiles, crooked pointed teeth, the stretch of smog across its face sounding like the crunch of broken bones. Jongdae is smothered in its smoke again to silence him, and Lust drops Baekhyun, sending him plummeting into the abyss of the fade.

  
  
  


viii.

Baekhyun has spent his life without Jongdae dreaming.

He'd spent their life together dreaming too, but that had been different --pipe dreams and ambitions, dreams of the world and all the magic within it.

Now, they're more simple. Jongdae in Baekhyun's bed, Jongdae laughing behind a cup of ale, Jongdae curled up by the fire with some old dog-eared tome, smiling at Baekhyun and welcoming him home. They feel more like memories than dreams, but his time with Jongdae seems further away everyday, and Baekhyun can no longer tell where the blurred line is drawn.

"Pinch me," he tells Chanyeol. "Right now."

"What?" he replies, cutting off his bartering with the merchant for new armor. Chanyeol follows Baekhyun's gaze, then blurts, "Oh Maker. Holy shit."

Because there, across the market, after years of Baekhyun's dreams turning to nightmares, thinking all the letters that go unsent and unresponded mean he's dead or something _ worse_, is Jongdae, and he's heading straight towards them.

The pain that seizes Baekhyun is incomparable. He's gotten wounds from fighting abominations, hoards of darkspawn, even _ dragons, _yet a single glimpse of Jongdae's intricately tattooed face feels like someone has taken Baekhyun's heart in their fist and is crushing it.

Chanyeol's mouth hangs open, and a thick silence passes between them as Jongdae and Baekhyun take each other in. The years have been kind to Jongdae, face sharper than the softness of his youth, hair longer where it curls around his pointed ears and body more toned, more grown into itself. But there's a tiredness there, an exhaustion that speaks miles Baekhyun will never be able to walk and catch up, miles that maybe he'd have already walked if Jongdae had stayed.

Yet all the anger Baekhyun has, all the sorrow and regret… that disappears the moment Jongdae smiles at him. Tentative and awkward, like he knows the bruises he's left on Baekhyun's heart and knows he can never fix them, but a smile all the same.

"Hi," he starts, throat bobbing as he gulps. "I heard you're the person to look for if you need a favour."

Chanyeol, still slack-jawed and speechless, pinches Baekhyun.

He doesn't wake up.

  
  
  
  


ii.

All the pretty dalish elf is looking for is a dagger.

A dagger belonging to the fucking _ arishok_. 

“Why are we doing this again?” Chanyeol whisper-yells as he leans over, while Kyungsoo weaves them between the stalls of fishermen and merchants at the docks in all his horned, stoic qunari glory. “What’s in it for us?”

Baekhyun thinks of Jongdae’s smile --sharp-edged yet sweet, compared to the bitter taste of the ale he’d bought him. _ To change your mind _, he’d insisted. He'd made quite the first impression on Baekhyun, the sort of indent that will never come out.

“Absolutely nothing,” Baekhyun replies. 

Chanyeol groans.

“He must’ve been very pretty,” he mutters under his breath, scrubbing at his face dejectedly.

Baekhyun grins.

  
  
  
  


ix.

"Has anyone ever told you you're crazy?"

"Once or twice," Baekhyun replies, shrugging as Chanyeol leans back and groans, causing Jongdae --a few polite steps ahead of them like he's afraid to be close-- to give them a weird look over his shoulder.

"Your weakness to pretty boys is killing this family," Chanyeol hisses, and Baekhyun grins. He's not wrong, per se, but in this instance it’s not pretty boys it’s just...

“Jongdae,” Baekhyun calls. “Are we there yet?” 

“Does it look like we are?” He sighs, exasperated. “The cave entrance isn’t much farther.” Jongdae’s mouth is still open like there’s more to say, but it snaps shut. He keeps doing that, a habit Baekhyun isn’t used to. Jongdae wasn’t known for biting his tongue three years ago; but that was then. 

There are still scars around the forest from the Dalish who had camped here, and Jongdae regards each and every one with an expression of sadness, covering them up as soon as he catches Baekhyun noticing. The Dalish at the base of Sundermount had been Jongdae’s people, once, before he ran away to Kirkwall and asked Baekhyun for a favour and a dagger. Jongdae had abandoned his nomadic elven clan for his own reasons, but desperation to conserve their dying culture have tied the Dalish together in ways that cannot separate them --ways Baekhyun has never understood, and never will. Jongdae has one secret for every tattoo line carving across his skin. In three years, _ that’s _ never changed. 

“I hate caves,” Chanyeol complains as they reach the entrance to the tunnels that will lead them to the peak of Sundermount. Baekhyun uses the tip of his bow to push away a cobweb while containing a shudder. He just hates spiders. “Why do you torture us?”

Jongdae smiles. “You two are the strongest warriors in all of Kirkwall, consider you being my guides a compliment.”

Strongest warriors? Chanyeol is, maybe, in all his ex-templar glory, but Baekhyun is just… Baekhyun. He’s never had any use to Jongdae. 

“What’s at the peak, anyway?” Baekhyun asks conversationally, Jongdae’s staff beginning to glow as they walk farther away from the sunlight. He doesn’t expect an answer --not from Jongdae-- but he still asks.

Old habits die hard.

“You’ll see. If I tell you now, Chanyeol will hightail it.”

Chanyeol makes a quiet _ eep _. 

“I’m kidding.” Jongdae laughs. “It’s nothing to worry about. Not for you.”

Easy for Jongdae to say, but Sundermount is infamous for the monsters roaming across it --Baekhyun, well acquainted with infamy, has learnt never to take rumours lightly. 

“Well then let’s get this over with.” Baekhyun yawns, stretching out his limbs. “I want to go home, I’ve had enough of long winding tunnels to last a lifetime.”

Jongdae smiles, undoubtedly remembering all the tales Baekhyun had told him of his journey into the Deep Roads with Junmyeon. He swears he can’t see a shadow move without worrying a dragon will show up again. 

“We won’t be long,” Jongdae promises, voice gentle as he smiles and places a hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder. The touch is light, like he’s afraid to leave a bruise. “Promise.”

Through sheer habit alone, Baekhyun smiles back.

Then they hear a monstrous hiss, and a giant spider shows up, spitting venom. 

They all pull out their weapons on cue.

“I fucking hate spiders.” Baekhyun sighs. 

  
  
  
  


iii.

The arishok, leader of the qunari in Kirkwall, is happy to give up the dagger taken off some trespassing thief so long as Baekhyun tracks down a group of pirates camped beyond the qunari sector in return.

That’s all Kirkwall is; a city of favours. Yet even bruised and battered with a set of knives in need of cleaning and a broken bowstring somehow it all becomes worth it for the smile that lights up Jongdae’s face when Baekhyun holds out the sheathe.

“I don’t have much, but--” Jongdae fumbles for the coin purse at his belt.

“Don’t bother.” Baekhyun waves his hands. He’s rich enough as is, no thanks to a noble title and Junmyeon with his stupid business plans involving ancient underground dwarven tunnels and _ dragons _ . Fucking _ dragons _. “Just… know you owe me a favour now.”

Jongdae smiles easily, Baekhyun has learnt, the same way someone smiles into a mirror shard --softly, even as their palm slices open-- but this is the first one that’s genuine.

“Okay,” Jongdae says. “You have my word.”

  
  
  
  


x.

“Alright that’s IT!” Chanyeol shouts as they make it to the other side of the tunnel. “I am never going in a cave ever again, _ ever _ . Least of all with _ you _.” He jabs an accusatory finger Jongdae’s way, who grins sheepishly.

“Sorry,” he apologises, plucking off the spider guts draped over his shoulders. “Maybe an explosive spell wasn’t the best choice, but I panicked.” 

“Well you saved me from getting my ass bitten off, so I appreciate it.” Baekhyun grins, punching Jongdae’s shoulder playfully, who returns the expression and punches him back. They snicker, then Baekhyun reaches out with a thumb to wipe a bit of green blood that’s smeared across Jongdae’s cheek. Jongdae’s smile falls, and he inhales, and Baekhyun--

“We’re setting up camp here,” Chanyeol declares, splayed out on the ground in a pile of long limbs and armor with his eyes shut. “That’s non-negotiable.”

Baekhyun draws his hand back at the same time Jongdae steps to the side. 

“Sounds like a plan.” Jongdae smiles, moving forward to join Chanyeol and light a fire. Jongdae has always been good at glazing over things, painting over all the bruises. That hasn’t changed either.

  
  
  


iv.

Jongdae makes a habit of travelling back and forth between Kirkwall, and be it actual purpose or a streak of fate from the Maker, he and Baekhyun become well-acquainted. Jongdae has a long string of favours with an empty elven coin purse and too many ambitions to fill it. Baekhyun, on the other hand, has too much generosity, a weakness to pretty boys, and a penchant for handling requests that could use the touch of an elven mage in repayment. Even if Jongdae _ is _ a blood mage, something Sehun disapproves of entirely.

So their relationship is just business, at first. Baekhyun with his string of connections to the qunari, the Chantry, the Circle and beyond, Jongdae with his depth of dalish wisdom and the secrets accompanying it. He has this drive for knowledge and travel that Baekhyun can only envy --as a noble with a deed to Byun land and fortune, Baekhyun is tied to the city that made him. He wasn’t born here, he didn’t even grow up here, but it still made him.

Still, with time together comes closeness, campsite laughter turns to deeper conversations and even the frigid nature Baekhyun is used to from the few dalish elves he’s met begins to melt away. Jongdae becomes less of a puzzle and more of a mystery simultaneously, because the more Baekhyun understands about him, the less he understands at all.

“I’m looking for my brother,” Jongdae tells him simply one night, over a shared flask of ale and a leg of boar cooking over the fire, turned by Kyungsoo’s metallic-skinned hands. Even though he speaks the words so easily, Baekhyun can feel their weight against him, left unspoken until this moment. The trust Jongdae is showing moves mountains. “He left our clan so… I left too.”

“Where did he go?” Baekhyun asks. Thedas is huge but sometimes it feels like Jongdae’s seen all of it, from the sprawling cities of the Tevinter Imperium to the ruins of the Dales. Each time he returns to Kirkwall he brings with him more stories of a far-off place Baekhyun can only dream of. 

“I don’t know…” Jongdae’s fingers trace over the sheathe at his belt, the same dagger Baekhyun had traded for with the qunari arishok. “But I’ll find him one day. That I’m sure of.” 

  
  
  
  
xi.

Baekhyun’s dreams that night are cruel. Not nightmares --far from it-- but cruel all the same. 

He awakens with a sense of unease and salt rubbed in an old wound. He prickles with the remnants of lust, mind filled with images of Jongdae’s naked tattooed skin beneath him, and all the guilt and self-loathing that accompanies that. 

“Jongdae.” Baekhyun pulls him aside while Chanyeol cooks breakfast, fingers circled around his wrist. “What’s at the top of this mountain?”

Jongdae’s eyes fall to Baekhyun’s hand, and he only tightens his grip. “If you know the answer then why ask?”

Baekhyun growls, shoving him back. “Cut the crap,” he hisses. “If you’re putting us in danger--”

“I’m not,” Jongdae is quick to affirm. “I’d never. Don’t you trust me?”

His eyes ask the question genuinely, but there’s always an edge to Jongdae Baekhyun has never trusted in, a mask he never takes off. 

And that just fucking hurts. 

“Don’t ask me that, I--” Emotions boil in Baekhyun’s throat, threatening to spill. He hates Jongdae, sometimes --almost as much as he loves him. “Fuck you.”

“You guys ready?” Chanyeol asks, supplies packed, oblivious as always. Evidently he hadn’t been visited in his dreams by a desire demon whispering of sins --something that only comments on Baekhyun’s character. 

“Yeah,” Baekhyun lies. “Yeah, let’s go.”

If Jongdae has noticed the cold-shoulder --which he has, he always does-- he doesn’t comment, just sticks to Baekhyun’s shadow a few steps behind, even if he should be ahead to lead. Baekhyun had let Jongdae walk back into his life after three years of dead silence preceded by a shitty note with the same amount of sentiment in its sprawling paragraphs as a torn piece of paper with the words _ bye, see you soon! _ So, in hindsight, maybe all the hurt and anger in his chest is overdue.

He shouldn’t have forgiven him, Baekhyun _ knows _ he shouldn’t have, but his roots are still dug into Jongdae no matter how hard Baekhyun has tried to tug them free, and he craves his presence enough to never question it. Jongdae, keeper of secrets that he is, doesn’t like questions; Baekhyun’s love of answers can’t outweigh it. 

“Jongdae,” Baekhyun speaks up finally, just as the crest of the peak comes into view. “I hope you know what you’re doing.” 

“I do,” Jongdae promises. “I know I’ve… made it hard to trust in me--” Baekhyun scoffs. An understatement. “But I didn’t spend those years away from you because I wanted to, Baekhyun. I have to find my brother, and you--” he swallows, cutting off. “And _ I _, am close. This is the last step, I’m sure of it.”

Baekhyun’s mouth twists, regretting the words he’s about to speak. “I trust you,” he replies. “Even though I shouldn’t, I do, because I...” What? Cling to Jongdae’s lost love like frail vines cling to tree trunks, seeking the sun? Can Baekhyun even say he loves Jongdae anymore, when they’ve been separated by space and time both? It’s hard to say, because Baekhyun looks at Jongdae and all the habitual emotions spark fires in his heart, even when he hardly recognises the person he’s become. “...Because I just do. So don’t fuck this up.”

Jongdae grins, and his teeth look like fangs. “I _ never _ make mistakes.”

Baekhyun laughs.

Sundermount’s summit is breathtaking, thickets of grey clouds and endless forests sprawling above and beneath Vimmark’s tallest peak as far as the eye can see. In its centre is a stone altar, so aged and withered Baekhyun can no longer make out the pictures and elven letters carved in its surface. All that remains is a crumbled pedestal, and a figure of something with a distinctly sinister air. Altars on mountaintops are _ always _ bad news.

“The Elvhenan fought with Tevinter mages here,” Jongdae begins, stepping closer to the altar and running his fingers along its weathered edge. “So much death, so much despair, so much… desire. Desire to protect, desire to kill, desire to conquer. The Veil between realms is thin.”

Baekhyun hearts picks up in his chest. “What does that have to do with your brother?” 

“Your brother?” Chanyeol repeats, blinking. It goes ignored as Jongdae turns to Baekhyun.

“I’ve searched all of Thedas for him,” Jongdae says, then smiles, small and sad. “Until I was absolutely certain that he couldn’t be on Thedas anymore.”

Baekhyun’s eyes widen in realisation. “Jongdae--”

But it’s too late, because Jongdae has already unsheathed his dagger, pressing it into his palm and drawing blood.

“If anything happens to me, _ vhenan_,” he tells Baekhyun, the old nickname slipping off his tongue out of habit and causing Baekhyun’s heart to stutter. “Kill me.” 

“Jongdae _ don’t _\--”

Blood hits the altar, and at first, time seems to pause, Baekhyun’s heartbeat completely still. 

Suddenly, an explosion of magic sweeps over them with the force of a bomb, and black smoke begins to curl around Jongdae, pooling at his feet. It’s held back from obscuring him or touching him by an invisible barrier, Jongdae’s bloodied hand glowing as he mutters the protective spell beneath his breath. 

_ Finally_, the smoke whispers. _ You do as I ask_.

“Repay the favour, Lust,” Jongdae tells the desire demon, trapped at Sundermount’s peak. “Let me pass through the Veil and I’ll set you free.”

_ Fool_, Lust replies. _ Do you think I cannot see the true desires in your heart? You do not wish to free me, you do not wish to see harm_. 

Jongdae chants something louder, and the smoke hisses, being pushed back into the stone entrapment it is bound to like a genie into its bottle. 

“Open a gate to the Fade,” Jongdae commands. “I know you have the strength.”

_ And what is in it for me? _ Lust whispers. _ You will not free me as I have asked, I owe you nothing _.

“Then die,” Jongdae tells it, beginning to chant louder. Chanyeol and Baekhyun can only watch in wide-eyed in horror as the demon screams, the smoke expanding and condensing, its tendrils writhing like tortured tentacles as it shrinks. 

_ Never _, Lust bellows, and a stretch of smoke desperately reaches across the peak to Baekhyun, seeking to transfer its essence from the altar into him. Baekhyun is too slow to dodge it.

“_NO!” _ Jongdae shouts just as the smoke brushes against Baekhyun’s cheek and he feels his body be consumed by flames.

Then as quickly as it hard started, it stops. Jongdae chants something different, the smoke recedes, and all Baekhyun can see is Jongdae screaming as it floods his every orifice. His mouth, his nose, his ears, his eyes, it pours into him, squirms beneath his skin. 

Then he collapses.

“Jongdae!”

Baekhyun rushes forward, but before he can reach Jongdae’s body, an invisible barrier pushes him back.

Jongdae stands, hand outstretched to hold Baekhyun in place, and he rolls his muscles as if testing them out. He opens his eyes.

They’re pitch black. 

“What did y--” Baekhyun cuts off as one of Jongdae’s hands clenches around his throat, pushing the air from his lungs, lifting him into the air as if lifting a twig. Baekhyun gasps, clawing at Jongdae’s wrist as he feels his blood seep against his throat.

“Let him go!” Chanyeol shouts, charging forward with his axe in hand, but a simple push of magic has him being blown backwards, colliding into a tree.

“Jong...dae…” Baekhyun chokes out, and the hand releases him, gasping for breath on the ground as the abomination in front of him hisses.

_ Stop resisting _, Lust screams in Jongdae’s voice, holding its head in Jongdae’s hands. Baekhyun scrambles to his feet, pulling out the daggers against his back without thinking twice, raising them over Jongdae’s back.

But he hesitates.

Lust whips around, noticing the blow that will never come, and pushes Baekhyun back so that he lands along the altar, air knocked from his lungs all over again. It growls, monstrous and inhuman, then leaps off Sundermount’s peak, plummeting into the forest below and taking Jongdae’s possessed body with it. 

  
  
  
  
v.

Jongdae’s curled by the fire when Baekhyun gets home, and his face breaks into a grin instantly, warmed inside out by the sensation of someone to come home _ to _. It’s been a few months since Jongdae was last in Kirkwall, it’s nice to see him so often. Baekhyun had insisted Jongdae stay with him rather than fork off coin to Kirkwall inns, and while Jongdae had said he’s indebted to his selflessness, Baekhyun can’t help but think that he’d only offered for selfish reasons.

“What are you reading?” he asks, causing Jongdae to look up from some dusty tome, unaware that Baekhyun had returned.

“Oh.” Jongdae looks caught off-guard, pointed ears flushing red. He dog-ears the corner of the page; Baekhyun wonders if Jongdae always shows his love by leaving bruises and marks. Jongdae shuts the book and pads forward. “Just… boring magic-y things.” Baekhyun smiles. “How was the quest?”

“Quest is a bit too noble-sounding, don’t you think?” Baekhyun snorts, dumping his weapons on the table and beginning to unbuckle his wrist guards. “But it was fine. One too many giant spiders for my liking.” 

Jongdae laughs, sweeter than any music in all of Thedas and beyond. “You always say that.”

“And I’ll stop saying it when people stop asking for favours that involve _ giant fucking spiders _.”

Jongdae’s smile softens, and he comes forward to unbuckle the clasp along Baekhyun’s waist he’s struggling to tug free, letting Baekhyun relax as he peels off each armored plate.

“How was your day?” Baekhyun returns instead. He could get used to this, domesticity born in the oddest of circumstances. A warrior noble tied to a city that needs him, and a wandering dalish elf with no place to call home --making their own, together. 

“Boring in comparison, but spider-free.” Jongdae’s lips twitch as he smooths out the linen Baekhyun wears under his armor, stained with green spider blood. His hands linger at the base of Baekhyun’s throat, a gentle touch that sends sparks across Baekhyun’s skin. 

He swallows. “I found something you might like,” he starts, needing an excuse to break away from Jongdae’s touch and return to the bags strung at his belt. He takes out the small, hand-held mirror tucked into one of its pouches, weathered and fractured. “It was already broken and I… probably broke it some more fighting those spiders but it’s… elven, right?” Baekhyun omits the part where he found it scavenging through a pile of bones --it’s not very romantic.

Jongdae takes the mirror gingerly, admiring it with awe. “Yes, this is elven,” he confirms, turning it in his hands, the ornate handle and frame depicting the elven pantheon surrounding cracked glass. His eyes shine. “It’s… Baekhyun it’s _ beautiful _.”

“Just like you,” Baekhyun blurts, before his brain can catch up to his heart and his mouth.

Jongdae looks startled, at first, but then he just smiles, shy and bashful. He places the mirror down on the edge of the table, and cradles Baekhyun’s face in his palms, calloused from wielding a staff and scarred from where Jongdae has pierced them for blood magic. 

“Can I kiss you?” he asks.

Baekhyun wets his lips. “If you know the answer then why ask?”

Their first kiss is nothing more than a simple brush of lips, gentle and timid, but it’s bruising all the same as Baekhyun feels his heart ache with the press of Jongdae’s mouth to his, all the corners in the pages of the book of his life folded over indefinitely. 

  
  
  
  


xii.

Baekhyun wonders if at any stage of his life he’ll ever step back and think, _ you know what, maybe this is too much _.

“You’re crazy,” Chanyeol tells him, no sense of bewilderment in his voice, just straight up facts. “You’re actually clinically insane, and you’re so calm about this I’m thinking you’re a tranquil mage but you seem to forget _ you’re not a fucking mage _.”

“Mage-shmage.” Baekhyun waves his hands, then stills, expression falling solemn quicker than he can catch it. “I can’t lose him, Yeol. Not again.”

Chanyeol softens, but Sehun’s anger is still apparent. “This is stupid,” he spits. “You’ll die.”

“You can’t die in a dream, Sehunnie,” Baekhyun says, smiling through the lie because he died in his dreams long ago. There are only two ways to save the mortal soul trapped inside an abomination: kill them in the physical realm, or save them in the Fade.

“No, but you can if you pump your flimsy human body full of lyrium first.” Kyungsoo huffs, arms crossed over his chest. Baekhyun smiles; trust the qunari to be the blunt one. 

“You’re not a mage, Baekhyun,” Sehun implores. “You can’t-- You’re not used to the Fade.”

“Of course I’m used to it,” Baekhyun insists. “I’m there dreaming every night, aren’t I?”

Sehun’s expression sours, because while it’s the _ truth _, it’s not all of it, but he must’ve realised by now that Baekhyun isn’t backing out. Sehun had volunteered himself to save Jongdae, mage talents at all, but Baekhyun knows what the Circle is like. If they ever found out that he entered behind their back to save an abomination… Sehun would be punished beyond redemption.

“Baekhyun, just--” Chanyeol exhales slowly, his hands shaking by his sides. He curls them into fists. “You should know what lyrium is like. Once you take it you won’t want to stop.”

Guilt curls in Baekhyun’s gut, rubbing the same addiction the Chantry had used to control Chanyeol for most of his life back into his face hadn’t been the smartest of ideas, but he needs Chanyeol with him, needs someone he _ trusts _. Baekhyun has always been selfish. 

“If you even live through the experience,” Kyungsoo adds. “The abomination on this side of the Veil will come looking for you to stop you.”

“Which is why I need you guys to protect me.” Baekhyun straightens up, trying to put on a brave face. “I don’t want to drag you into this anymore than necessary, but I trust you all to keep me safe, so please.”

Chanyeol slumps, and Kyungsoo softens, but Sehun’s mouth is still twisted on his face.

“He’s not just your burden, you know,” Junmyeon starts as he enters the room, carrying a small oak box in two hands. As a dwarf, he’s the shortest of them all, but right now it feels like he’s standing tallest. (Partly in thanks to shoe lifts.) “He’s our friend too.”

“Yes,” Kyungsoo agrees. “Your band of merry idiots includes him.”

“Hey!” Chanyeol squawks. “You’re one of those idiots too!!!” 

Kyungsoo huffs. “I refuse.”

While Chanyeol and Kyungsoo bicker, Baekhyun’s heart squeezes in his chest, and he’s pointedly reminded of how it is he survived those three years without Jongdae. Jongdae left them all too; they’ve all been hurt by him one way or another, and it’s Jongdae’s constant selfish stupidity that’s pushing them all together to slap some sense into him and bring him home.

“Thank you,” Baekhyun interjects, laughing. Kyungsoo and Chanyeol cut off, blinking. “Really.” He swallows around the lump in his throat, turning to Junmyeon with watery eyes. “Did you get it?”

“Of course.” Junmyeon opens the box, revealing the small vial of the processed, liquid metal. “Though it wasn’t cheap, I figured I owed you more than you owe me.”

Baekhyun smiles, picking the glass up. It’s not much more than few drops, yet something about it makes his gut twist with anxiety. If there’s anyone who knows how to get an illegal magical drug, it’s Junmyeon.

“Once you take that, I’ll cast a sleeping spell,” Sehun explains. “I should be able to channel your spirit to remain aware on the other side but… Maker, Baekhyun, no one’s ever done anything this crazy before. I can’t guarantee it will work.”

“Of course it will.” Baekhyun shrugs. “It always works out for us.”

Sehun wrings his hands, but nods, choosing to believe in Baekhyun like he has all the times in the past. 

“Lust will sense your arrival as soon as you’re there,” Sehun continues. “We won’t have long until it tracks you here to stop you.”

“And it won’t take me long to find him.”

“The Fade isn’t straightforward, Baekhyun.” Sehun’s eyebrows pinch together, and it makes Baekhyun wonder what it is Sehun saw on the other side when he passed his harrowing and became a full Circle mage, all those years ago. “It’s a realm of dreams, controlled by your subconscious and nonsense because of it. You have to hold onto yourself or you’ll be pulled out.”

“I’ll be fine Sehunnie,” Baekhyun assures, placing a hand on Sehun’s bicep and squeezing. “I promise.”

“Then let’s do this,” Kyungsoo speaks up. “The sooner we stop the abomination the better.”

Baekhyun nods, and Junmyeon hands over the vial as Chanyeol walks him through the process of ingesting it. Once Baekhyun has swallowed the stuff, a strange burning simmers under his skin. He feels… alert, his senses heightened, his strength returning, and he exhales in one breath as he understands why Chanyeol nearly lost himself trying to quit using it. 

“I’m ready,” he tells Sehun, far too awake to ever fall asleep on his own.

Sehun nods, and begins to chant, Baekhyun closing his eyes as his spirit slips through the Veil, and into the world of the Fade.

  
  
  


vi.

It’s only in the strange hours between night and morning that Jongdae’s exhaustion and the feeling of Baekhyun’s warm body curled beside him are enough to make him talkative.

Not that Jongdae is ever quiet, per se, just that he has a way of saying so much without saying anything at all. Still, if Baekhyun kisses him sweetly, entangles their naked legs together and rests his head on Jongdae’s chest while one hand traces out the tattoos across it, then Jongdae starts giving answers.

At first, it’s just small things. What his brother is like _ \--kind, but hides his suffering with a smile, like you-- _ why he left _ \--I don’t know. That’s what I want to find out-- _ how much Jongdae misses him and his people _ \--enough to fill the oceans with want. _But then it’s even more, and their relationship becomes transactional, secret for secret. Jongdae talks about his life wandering with his dalish clan, and Baekhyun talks about his days at Lothering as a soldier in Ostagar, just south of Kirkwall and the Free Marches, before the blight and hoards of darkspawn destroyed his old life and forced Baekhyun to come here and be made by the clawed hands of this cruel city. 

They talk for hours each night, things Baekhyun has said to no one, not even to himself, and Jongdae listens with so much attentiveness Baekhyun thinks he could drown in it. 

Tonight, exhaustion threatens to send Baekhyun to sleep, but Jongdae is telling him stories of the glistening skyline of Val Royeaux in Orlais, the smoke stacks of Denerim in Ferelden. Jongdae makes tree roots seem like impossibilities because how could any living being ever want to stay _ still _ when the world is so vast with so much to offer. It makes Baekhyun jealous, and nestles longing in his chest too, but he’s established too much here to just leave it all behind.

“Sometimes I wonder what’s beyond Thedas, too,” Jongdae says, pulling Baekhyun from his thoughts. “The other continents.”

Baekhyun’s face scrunches as he takes that in, sitting up. “If you left Thedas, you’d come back, right?” He searches Jongdae’s face, begging for him to give the right answer.

Jongdae softens. “Of course, _ ma vhenan_.” He cups Baekhyun’s cheek, and the pet name turns him red no matter how often Jongdae says it. _ My heart_, in elvish --how is Baekhyun meant to survive _ that _? “There are things here that I can’t bear to leave waiting.”

Baekhyun smiles, and crawls forward to kiss him, soft and slow and sweet as the tenderness mixes with arousal in his gut, consuming him in a way that Baekhyun feels only with Jongdae.

“If you ever leave Thedas, and I never see you again,” Baekhyun murmurs into his mouth. “I’ll kill you.” 

Jongdae laughs, bubbly and beautiful. “At least we’ll reunite once more.” 

“Jerk.” Baekhyun leans in for more kisses, but exhaustion overthrows any desire, and soon they find themselves lying in bed face-to-face, staring at one another, fighting off the drooping of their eyelids. Sleepy and somewhat delirious, Baekhyun reaches out to sweep his fingers across Jongdae’s face, tracing over the lines of each tattoo.

“Pretty…” he mumbles, having never taken such care to notice their intricate details.

“Are you familiar with the elven pantheon, the Creators?” Jongdae asks. Baekhyun shakes his head. “My _ vallaslin _ represents my chosen god, _ Dirthamen_, the keeper of secrets.”

Baekhyun snorts. “Of course it does.” He brushes his thumb over the tattoo framing Jongdae’s cheekbones; Jongdae takes his hand and kisses his palm.

“He represents loyalty, and family too,” Jongdae continues, pressing a kiss to the inside of Baekhyun’s wrist. “He’s the twin brother of _ Falon’Din_, the god of death, but one day his brother wandered past the veil, lost in the fade, and _Dirthamen_ had to find him.” A kiss to Baekhyun’s knuckles.

“There, he met Fear and Deceit, who tried to trick him into losing himself to the Beyond --the Fade-- but _ Dirthamen _ tamed the ravens so that they could lead him back to his brother, where they swore to never separate again.” 

“That’s a lovely story,” Baekhyun commends, eyelids slipping shut. “Far nicer than the Maker condemning all of mankind.” 

Jongdae hums in lazy agreement, pressing more kisses to Baekhyun’s fingers. “Also nicer than the story about _ Dirthamen _ creating the _ varterral_.”

“Ugh, _ seriously _?” Baekhyun groans as he rolls in bed while Jongdae laughs. “Your chosen god is the guy who made his own breed of giant spiders?”

Jongdae keeps laughing. “I guess so, _ vhenan_.” He rolls on top of Baekhyun, black curls hanging around his face as he keeps him locked between his limbs. “But just because he’s my chosen deity doesn’t mean I agree with _ everything _ about him.”

“Is that so?” Baekhyun goads, and smiles into the last kiss Jongdae leaves, right against his lips. And all the ones after it too.

  
  
  


xiii.

The first thing Baekhyun notes about the Fade is how familiar it is.

Which makes sense, because this is where mortals come to dream, he just never expected it to be so… eerie, because of it. Though he can hardly remember the Fade ever looking like _ this _, specifically, he can’t shake the feeling that he’s been here before.

“Well at least it worked,” he mumbles to himself. So non-mages can wander in the Fade outside their bodies consciously after all, who would’ve guessed. 

He keeps waiting for a demon or spirit to sense his presence and come bother him instantly --this is their realm, after all, where they come to whisper and torment people in their dreams-- but the floating cliffs of the Fade amongst all the green mist are deserted and silent, not a single sound to be heard. Even Baekhyun’s footfall is mute.

But there are more pressing matters at hand, like finding Jongdae, or finding _ anything _. Panic bubbles up his throat, and Baekhyun exhales steadily, centering himself to remember Sehun’s words. He has to hold onto himself if he wishes to conquer the Fade and find Jongdae’s trapped spirit, imprisoned by Lust. It is the realm of dreams, after all, and Baekhyun is a dreamer. The Fade must obey him.

Baekhyun pushes through the mist, continuing to walk along the harrowed cliffs and the floating stone stairwells that interconnect them for what feels like hours but may have only been seconds --time doesn’t flow the same here. All Baekhyun has seemed to accomplish is walk in one big circle. Great.

“You will never find him,” a voice says. 

“And he does not want you to,” says another.

Baekhyun pauses. Up ahead, on two branches of a tree, are two ravens. 

“Wow, I can’t even tell which one is fear and which one is deceit,” Baekhyun blurts, blinking between them. “Say something else.”

“You are lost,” says the first.

“And he does not love you,” says the second.

“Yeah see both of those sound like my greatest fears and also total lies, so I can’t tell.” Baekhyun frowns. “Are you the real deal or a copy because of my subconscious?” Sehun warned him about this, after all. The Fade will shape itself according to what Baekhyun _ expects _ it to be. Belief is more powerful here than anything else. 

The ravens don’t answer. 

Baekhyun huffs. Dumb birds.

“At least show me where Lust has taken him,” Baekhyun implores, pausing. “...Please?” 

The birds caw in unison, making Baekhyun wince at the sharpness of the sound, but when he blinks back the tree has gone and the ravens too, the mist parting to reveal a spiralling staircase leading upwards.

“Alright Lust,” Baekhyun mumbles. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

It only occurs to Baekhyun that he’s weaponless when he reaches the top of the steps, brought face to face with a tall, looming forest. Gone are the floating cliffs and swirling mist; this forest is so real and familiar, it must be a dream --but not one of Baekhyun’s. 

A twig snaps, and Baekhyun swivels, drawing out his daggers and then blinking when he realises that they’ve materialised in his hands. Freaky.

Shaking it off, Baekhyun continues through the forest, trusting only in his legs to lead him forward. Eventually, up ahead, he hears the echoes of crying.

Of _ Jongdae _crying.

Baekhyun is sprinting before he can think twice, pushing past the thickets of brush that disintegrate beneath his touch to reach Jongdae's huddled form in a clearing up ahead.

"Jongdae," he breathes out, stepping forward. "Jongdae, it's me, it's Baekhyun are you alright? Are you hurt?"

The crying pauses, for a moment, only for Jongdae to say, "Go _ away_." He curls in tighter on himself. "It's not real, you're not real, none of this is real." He repeats it like a mantra.

"But I am real, I mean-- this is the Fade so it's just my spirit or whatever," Baekhyun amends. "But I'm not part of a dream, Jongdae, it's me. I'm here to save you."

"Stop," he begs. "Please just... stop. It hurts too much." He looks up, eyes rimmed red, searching Baekhyun's face. "Isn't my body enough for you? Why do you have to torment me too with all… this--" he gestures around him, and Baekhyun spots the blurred figures behind the trees. Dalish, and behind them, others. Chanyeol, Sehun, other faces Baekhyun can't make out. Watching and laughing, mere wisps of themselves."--Things I want but can't have."

"Want but… can't have?" Baekhyun repeats numbly, then growls. "Are you fucking kidding me? You think you can't have this? You _ idiot_, you're the one that gave this all up for your own stupid quest! Thinking you were being all mighty and noble when you were just being selfish and scared.

"_We _ aren't the ones that left, Jongdae, and you can sit around pretending like you don't deserve us but the fact of the matter is we were all waiting for you to come back anyway." Baekhyun huffs, the anger seeping out of him. "So stop making Lust's job too fucking easy. You could've just said goodbye."

Silence passes as Jongdae just. Stares. Baekhyun huffing with his finished rant.

Then Jongdae says, "...Baekhyun?"

"_Now _he realises." Baekhyun rolls his eyes, pulling Jongdae to his feet.

"What're you doing here? How-- How did you--"

"I'm saving you, jerk." Baekhyun tugs him forward. "And it involved a lot of pulled strings and unparalleled magic, so you better grovel on your knees to the others when we get home."

Jongdae brightens, laughing in disbelief and relief both. "I told you to kill me."

"Idiot." Baekhyun scoffs. "Like I could ever hurt you…” Even with a demon puppeting Jongdae’s body around, somehow it seemed easier to attempt the impossible.

"_Vhenan_…" Jongdae shakes his head. "Lust won't let you win so easily, I can still see through the Veil. It's going to try to stop you in both worlds."

"I have back-up," Baekhyun reassures. "Let's just worry about this side first."

Which proves easy enough, because as they reach the end of the forest Baekhyun has to stop them in place, gulping at the cliff edge as a few pebbles skitter to the abyss of the Fade beneath them. A black mist begins to pool around them, and Baekhyun holds Jongdae behind him, protective.

_ Did you think I would make it so easy? _

“No,” Baekhyun answers. “But I’m a chronic optimist.”

Maybe any other hero would have a legendary battle, trying to save their loved one from a demon, but it’s kind of fitting Baekhyun’s ending is so anticlimactic. After all, he’s never taken well to being called the _ Champion of Kirkwall _, no matter how much he hears it. 

One missed dagger slash ends with a claw straight through his chest, and that’s that.

The jolt of death sends Baekhyun through the Veil, eyes flickering open on the other side, just in time to watch the abomination Jongdae's been turned into crash through Baekhyun's bedroom wall and claw along his stomach, making Baekhyun scream. Chanyeol is shouting, and so is Sehun as Kyungsoo barrels Lust over, but the lyrium in Baekhyun's veins holds on tight, sending him back to the fade.

"Baekhyun!" 

He glimpses down at the claw in his stomach, the blood that's started to trickle out because that's what his subconscious expects. Lust smiles, then Baekhyun is falling, plummeting into the abyss of the Fade.

  
  
  


vii.

Of all the things Jongdae has taught Baekhyun, about magic, about elves, about the world, about _ love _ , it's the one about happiness that sticks with Baekhyun most. Baekhyun has learnt happiness is having friends from the most unexpected places be your family. Happiness is having someone to come home to and trade stories with about your day. Happiness is kisses before dawn and kisses after sunset, is the way Jongdae's voice grows deep and soft when he says _ ma vhenan _.

But happiness above all else, is fleeting.

In hindsight, maybe Baekhyun should’ve seen it coming. The time Jongdae spends away had kept growing longer, and the way his mask had begun to resettle when Baekhyun had spent so much time pulling it off perturbed him. Jongdae never was one for sitting still, so maybe it’s Baekhyun’s fault for trying to root him down to begin with. 

(Baekhyun returns home that day to nothing but a note and an old broken elven mirror. After reading the parchment, he tears it to shreds, and as he raises the mirror up to throw it against the wall it only slips from his hands and shatters on the ground instead, Baekhyun curling in on himself as he feels everything cave inwards.)

  
  
  
  


xv.

Baekhyun jolts awake, stomach swooping with the sensation of falling without ever having hit the ground and groans in pain at the fresh wound across his chest. The desire abomination is still in front of them, Jongdae's body distorted and warped to the point of being unrecognisable as Lust's magic blasts clash against Kyungsoo's enchanted axe.

"Send me back," Baekhyun tells Sehun, gritting through the pain. "Right _ now _."

"Bit busy here," Sehun retorts, sending a blast towards the abomination that's easily deflected. 

Baekhyun stumbles to stand, groaning, but his feet give out under him because he's still falling but-- he's not, he can’t be. He's awake.

Except he isn't. He's flickering between the Veil rapidly, his conscious still projected into the Fade with his body awake on Thedas. Baekhyun looks down at the bloodied palm he’s holding against his wound and the way it flickers, glitching between this realm and the next.

His decision is instantaneous. Baekhyun closes his eyes to block out the commotion, focusing on the half of him that's still in the Fade, trying to reshape the dream world around him so he stops falling. It obeys, and time rewinds itself as he begins falling _ up. _

A blow in the real world knocks Baekhyun's concentration, and he stumbles to right himself as the abomination's magic pushes him back. He's unharmed from the magic, which shocks him, until he remembers the lyrium in his veins gives him a natural magic resistance.

"Just-- a few more seconds--" he begs the others, who only nod before forming a defensive wall around Baekhyun as he centers himself back into the Fade, his feet meeting solid ground again back on Lust's island.

_ Why don't you ever give up? _ the demon hisses in both worlds.

"Sorry," Baekhyun says. "I'm stubborn like that."

In the Fade, Baekhyun leaps, daggers materialising in his hands mid-air as he plunges them into Lust's smoke and dreams of a flare of magic bursting through it, tearing the demon to shreds.

In both worlds, Lust screams, a howl loud enough to pierce the Veil. As it dissipates from around Baekhyun in the Fade, it leaves Jongdae's spirit behind through the smoke, which he rushes forward to catch. In the real realm, Baekhyun does the same, watching as Lust's magic disintegrates away, leaving Jongdae's exhausted body in its place.

"Jongdae," Baekhyun murmurs in both worlds. "Time to wake up now."

  
  
  
  


.

_ Baekhyun, _

_ When I was a child, the Keeper of our clan taught me that we are born on our own paths, and while we must walk them alone, the paths are never straight. _

_ They are a network of intersections, a highway of roots and branches that are intertwined. Your path and mine have crossed too many times to count, and I believe with all of my heart, all of _ **you** _ , that they will cross again. _

_ For we are like the mirror you gave me all those moons ago; weathered and broken, but our cracks always find a way back to each other. _

_ I have to find my brother, Baekhyun, but you make me want to stay. Being with you is a dream I never want to wake up from, but I have reached a part of my path without intersections; I hope you can forgive me. _

_ Ar lath ma, vhenan. Dareth shiral. Until we meet again, in this world or the next. _

  
  
  
  


xvi.

When Jongdae returns from the Fade, Sehun tells him he’ll never be the same again.

Which is to be expected. His spirit was held prisoner and tormented while he had to watch a demon puppet his body through the Veil. But if there are notable differences, Baekhyun has yet to spot them --then again, there’s so much of Jongdae that’s changed in the years apart that he’ll need to relearn.

Under normal circumstances, a mage that gives into the temptation of a demon and becomes a possessed abomination could never recover their spirit quite the same way, but Jongdae had _ purposefully _ let himself become possessed, to prevent it happening to Baekhyun. 

Which, as he admits it, makes Baekhyun say, “Maker Jongdae you are so fucking stupid.”

Jongdae, still on bedrest, laughs, a sickly thing. “Yeah,” he agrees. “I knew I could never trust a demon but… I thought I could control it. I didn’t think it would be able to hurt you. I should’ve been stronger than that.”

Baekhyun shakes his head. “How did you even know Lust was there?”

Jongdae wriggles, uncomfortable. “We’d met when my clan was camped at Sundermount, it visited my time in the Beyond a lot…” he trails off. “It taught me blood magic, said I’d be able to use it to find my brother. Lust promised that if I set it free it would tear a portal in the Veil to let me enter the Fade with full strength, but I knew I couldn’t trust that Jongdeok was even there until a few weeks ago when my Keeper told me the truth. That’s what brought me here.”

“...And?” Baekhyun prompts after a moment of silence. “That brilliant idea fell through, so now what?”

“Now… I don’t know,” Jongdae admits, gazing off as his expression turns thoughtful. “My connection to the Fade is too weak to wander through projection, I have to find a tear in the Veil to enter with all my strength.” Baekhyun gives him a look. “...Without trying to make a deal with a powerful demon.”

“You don’t say.” Baekhyun smiles despite himself, sitting at the edge of his own bed where Jongdae is recovering, picking at the edge of his bandage to stop the shaking of his hands. No wonder Chanyeol had struggled. All the damage in his living room the abomination had caused is already patched up, no thanks to magic and dwarven handiwork. 

“Jongdae…” Baekhyun starts, breaking the thick silence between them. “When you find a way into the Fade, next time, don’t go in alone.” Jongdae blinks, startled. “And just for future reference, I’ll have you know I’m very experienced with the other side now.”

Jongdae seems overcome with emotion, eyes shining as he smiles. “Yeah,” he agrees. “Yeah, okay.” He laughs, breathless. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Maybe Baekhyun should be mad, really, that Jongdae has continued to be a reckless, selfish idiot after all this time, yet all he can find within himself is relief. Relief that Jongdae is home, that he’s safe, that he won’t ever pull some stupid stunt like that again.

Baekhyun stands, stretching with faux nonchalance. “And just so you know, you owe me three favours now, and I’m cashing them in.” He holds up three fingers. “The first is for escorting you to the peak, and for that I want you to stay.” Two. “The second is for saving your ass from being an abomination for eternity. For that, I just want you to say _ goodbye _ the next time you have to leave, in _ person _. Is that too much to ask?”

Jongdae huffs quietly, self-deprecating. “No.” He shakes his head. “It isn’t. What about the third?”

“The third?” Baekhyun pauses. “The third is for that fancy blood magic dagger I got for you when we first met,” he explains. “And for that, I just want you to always know that you can come back here. Whether you leave for three days, three months, three years, if you say goodbye, Jongdae, I don’t mind waiting. I wouldn’t mind coming with you, even, on the rare occasion.”

Jongdae looks at Baekhyun in a way that he can’t comprehend or handle, so it forces Baekhyun to turn, swallowing around the lump in his throat. “Do we have a deal?”

“We have a deal,” Jongdae confirms, sniffling as he swipes at his eyes before the tears can spill, laughing to himself under his breath. “But can I be selfish and ask for one last favour?”

Baekhyun shrugs. “Sure.”

“Kiss me, _vhenan_.”

Baekhyun’s smile creeps across his face. “You don’t need to use up a favour for that.”

After everything they’ve been through --together, and apart-- Baekhyun can’t help but sigh against Jongdae’s mouth, all the exhaustion bubbling up under his skin as he relishes in the taste of home and happiness. Like shards of glass, nothing between them is ever smooth or straightforward, but for now, a kiss is enough.

  
  
  
  


i.

Everyone talks of how a great legend begins, but no one ever talks about how they end.

It would be nice to say that Baekhyun’s ending comes in the form of a hooded person at the other end of his table just after midnight, head down and huddled into themselves to look smaller than they are, but no ending is ever that simple.

“I heard you’re the person to look for if you need a favour.”

“For friends,” Baekhyun corrects, because he’s tired of feeling stretched thin in this Maker’s forsaken city of people who need _ favours _ . But maybe he’s a little bit drunk, too, impulsive because of it. Sober Chanyeol had left him hours ago to go home at ‘ _ a reasonable hour _’ but Baekhyun had just kept drinking. And now there’s a stranger in his spot. “Are you a friend?”

“You tell me.” The figure raises his face, daring to meet Baekhyun’s eyes, and if Baekhyun wasn’t perpetually tired maybe he’d actually find it within himself to be shocked by the tattoos running across sun-kissed skin, intricate swirling patterns interconnecting. 

“I think I’d remember a pretty face like yours,” Baekhyun half-slurs, half-flirts, refilling his cup of ale from the jug on the table. It empties out when the cup is only half-full, and he frowns at it, squinting into its bottom. “Long way from home aren’t you, _ durgen’len _?”

The stranger pauses. “...You just called me a dwarf?”

“Oh shit,” Baekhyun curses, trying to remember the lilted tongues of the dalish elves he’d met wandering in the mountains just outside of Kirkwall. They’d asked him for favours, too. “I meant uh, _ da_’_len _…?”

The stranger snorts. “Insult received though your pronunciation is horrible.” He has that same dalish lilt to his voice too, melodic and oddly jovial, flowing together. “But I’m not here for the sake of the Dalish.”

“Of course,” Baekhyun commends. “You’re here for a favour.”

“I’m here for me,” he corrects. “Jongdae.” He outstretches a hand across the table. “I look forward to doing business with you.”

“I haven’t accepted yet,” Baekhyun points out.

“No?” Jongdae tips his head to the side. “Can I refill your cup to change your mind?” 

Baekhyun’s lips twitch, despite himself.

“Baekhyun,” he returns, taking Jongdae’s hand. “A pleasure doing business with you too.”

The stranger laughs, mouth open wide, eyes curved; and Baekhyun knows his ending is beginning all over again.

**Author's Note:**

> _da'len_ \- little one/child  
_Ar lath ma, vhenan. Dareth shiral_ \- i love you, my heart. safe journey/goodbye.


End file.
